


What the Fuck Am I Supposed to Get Him?

by 09cityskylights



Category: Shameless (US), gallavich - Fandom
Genre: Cute, Gallavich, Happy Birthday, Ian/Mickey, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 05:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10610619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/09cityskylights/pseuds/09cityskylights
Summary: It's Ian's birthday and when Lip asks Mickey what he has as a gift for Ian, he has to figure it out quickly.





	

Lip pushes open the worn front door of the Alibi with one hand, while the other is slung over Mandy’s shoulder casually. She doesn’t mind when he teasingly leans his weight on her, and she actually carries it well. She’s a strong girl. The familiar bar is moderately busy, Kev is washing glasses from behind the counter, his signature white towel draped over his shoulder. The bar has its regulars scattered around it and his brother’s boyfriend Mickey is sitting inside too, perched on a worn-out bar stool. He has a half empty beer in front of him, and he swirls the glass gently before he takes another gulp. A strand of black hair hangs down over his left eye, and his mouth is displaying its usual unimpressed grimace.

Mandy leads them over to where her brother is sitting, and they grab the two stools beside him. He looks up from his drink, nods slightly at them. “Hey uh, Mickey, how’s it going?” Lip asks, signalling Kev over, “Two beers please”. Mickey shrugs, smirks, “What’s it to you?” Mandy shakes her head at her brother, a grin on her face from his typical douchey response. “So, it’s Ian’s birthday” Lip says, but his words are posed more like a question than a statement. Mickey looks up, “You think I don’t know that?”

“Well what are you planning on doing for my dearest brother?” Lip takes a big gulp of his beer and belches. Mickey looks from Mandy to Lip with a furrowed brow, “Show up for cake? I’m guessing at your place?” Mandy scoffs, “It’s his birthday and you’re his boyfriend, idiot. You have to do something special for him”. Mickey suddenly looks a little uncomfortable, “What am I supposed to do?” “Well we can’t very well tell you, now can we? Otherwise we might as well just do it ourselves and take all the credit”. Lip looks at him pointedly. “Fuck”. Mickey drains his beer and chews the inside of his cheek for a moment, scans the bar like he’s looking for something. Lip watches the dark-haired boy his own age finally get up off his stool, and leave the Alibi without another word. Mickey was easy to tease, he got worked up so easily. Ian wasn’t really expecting anything, Lip was sure. But he would enjoy seeing what Mickey pulled out of his ass to impress his brother (no pun intended).

Mickey takes his time walking home, pulling long slow drags from his cigarette. “Fuck”. He says it again. Birthdays weren’t much of a big deal at the Milkovich house. Mandy would usually cook something semi decent for dinner if it was one of her brother’s birthdays, some years Terry remembered his kid’s birthdays and brought home a couple cases of beers. What the fuck was he supposed to get for Ian? Ian hadn’t mentioned anything about his birthday other than saying he hoped Fiona didn’t overbake the cake this year.

He passes some dollar store and then comes to a halt, walks backwards slowly and looks in the window. He can see some helium balloons resting against the ceiling towards the back of the store. He sighs and looks like he would rather be anywhere else, but goes inside anyways.  
The cashier looks up from her cellphone and narrows her eyes at Mickey. He fights the urge to flip her off and casually saunters to the back of the store where the balloons are. Right, okay. Here are some birthday things. Not like Ian needs stupid balloons or decorations or anything but birthday cards are pretty standard. Mickey pulls out the first one he sees, “Happy birthday to my daughter!” He shoves the card back in its slot. Looks at the labels above the stacks. “Husband”, “Mother”, “Anniversary”, “Grandparent”, “For Someone You Love”.

Mickey looks around him before he pulls out a card from the last stack. Well this card had balloons on it. Not really what he was looking for. He pulls out a few more. They all seemed cheesy, and stupid. Finally, he reaches a card with a camouflage design on it, probably for younger boys. “Happy Birthday” was printed on the front in yellow bubble letters. He flips it open “You’re everything I’ve been looking for”.

He licks his lips and looks around again, the store is still empty. He considers shoving it in his sweater and stealing it but he doesn’t want it to get bent. He flips it at the cashier who is still standing at her register, texting. She looks up slowly and picks up the card, flips it open. Reads the inside and looks at Mickey. “What”, he says, challenging her to say something, brow raised threateningly. She doesn’t answer, just shrugs slightly and scans it. “Two dollars”. He drops the change on her counter and leaves the store quickly, holding the card down at his side.

*A Few Hours Later*

Ian comes thumping down the Gallagher staircase, he’s in a good mood. It’s his birthday and he’s actually pretty happy this year. No major family crises occurring, and Mickey had agreed to come over for cake later. His siblings have put up some streamers, Debbie is always big on decorating for birthdays, and she beams at him when she seems him admiring her work. “Nice work Debbie” he grins. He heads into the kitchen where Fiona is starting to put dinner out on the table.

“Hey birthday boy, roast chicken and mashed potatoes, sound good?” He smiles, “yeah looks great”. The rest of the Gallaghers begin to file into the kitchen, grabbing plates. Even Frank is present and relatively sober. The table is loud and raucous, siblings chattering happily and Frank going on about some “life advice” for his son on his birthday. Ian easily tunes him out, and after dinner while everyone is clearing up and Fiona is sticking candles in his cake he feels his phone buzz. From: MICKEY - Outside.  
Ian shoves his phone back in his pocket, “Mick’s here”. Fiona smiles her amused smile that she still sports over the thought of her brother and the Milkovich thug being an item. “He’s late. Hurry up and get him in here I’m lighting this cake in two minutes”. Ian nods and heads outside. For some reason, Mickey never just comes up to the front door when he arrives. He is leaning against the Gallagher’s flimsy fence outside of their house.

Ian raises his eyebrows at the sight of his boyfriend. Mickey is wearing absolutely clean and ironed dark jeans, a dark blue button down shirt, and his normal work boots have been replaced with nicely laced brown shoes. He looks so handsome, so different than his usual attire, that Ian feels his breath catch.  
Mickey looks a little uncomfortable and he stands straighter when Ian comes outside. “Hey you. Happy birthday”. “Heh…thanks. You look great Mick”. Mickey cocks his head, a little smile on his face. He can’t help it, “Come to my place with me. I gotta show you something”. “No, we are doing the cake now, come inside” Ian cocks his head towards the entrance. Mickey glances down the street towards his house, “Alright… after then”.

He bounds up the front steps agreeably and stops when he’s beside Ian. Kisses him, and Ian’s lips curve into a smile through the kiss. “IAN!”, they hear Carl shout from inside the house. That kid has a voice like a megaphone. Mickey rolls his blue eyes but the two of them walk inside together. The Gallaghers all pause for a moment when they look up and see Mickey and what he is wearing. A step up from even his business casual look that he sometimes dons.  
Mickey stares back, and his eyes finally land on Lip who is smiling, but not in a teasing way. His look is approving, and he nods his head slightly at Mickey. “Alright, Happy Birthday to you…” Fiona starts up the song and the entire Gallagher brood begin to yell the song at their red-haired brother. Mickey joins in too, just not at the same volume as the rest of the gang.

Ian feels Mickey’s hand graze his back and he ends up resting it on at the hollow of Ian’s back. Fuck Ian’s happy, and a contented laugh bubbles from him involuntarily. The entire group sits down and starts eating cake once Fiona slices it into pieces. Mickey seems pretty quiet but then again, he is usually drowned out by all of Ian’s siblings.  
Ian opens presents from his brothers and sisters, unwrapping an assortment of drawings, magazines, candy and even a tie from Fiona. He thanks each one of them,and they grin back at him in turn. Liam kisses his brother on the cheek. Carl suddenly fixes his eyes on Mickey, “What did you get him?”

Ian sees Mickey’s eyebrows shoot up like they do when he feels challenged and quickly intervenes, “He doesn’t have to get me anything. I’m happy he’s here”. “He’s your boyfriend” Carl says, like this is his ultimate argument to this issue. Mickey stands up and his chair scrapes back against the linoleum, “His gift is at my house”. Now it’s Ian’s turn to be surprised, and from the looks on the rest of the Gallaghers they are too. Except for Lip, he just looks like he is enjoying all of this immensely.  
Ian glances at his boyfriend and it dawns on him Mickey probably wants to fuck in the privacy of his own currently empty house. Well that’s a gift Ian is happy to receive. “Alright let’s go” Ian says, getting up too. They walk to Mickey’s house in the dark, and when Ian reaches out for Mickey’s hand Mickey doesn’t pull away. Ian looks down and sees FUCK spread and spelled out between his own pale fingers.

Ian is actually already feeling frisky from anticipating stripping Mick out from his nice clothes. When they get inside the Milkovich household however, Mickey drops his hand and says “wait here”. “Uh, okay” Ian says, and waits obediently. “Fuck!” he hears Mickey exclaim a moment later. He forgets Mickey’s request and heads to his boyfriend’s room and sees his Mickey looking around like he’s lost something.

Ian notices three different nice shirts strewn around the room and realizes Mickey had tried on every nice thing he owned trying to decide what to wear for Ian’s birthday. That’s probably why he was late. Ian was touched. “Fucker got out of my room” Mickey says, exasperated. Before Ian has a chance to ask he hears a bark from down the hall and Mickey quickly strides out of the room towards it.

Ian follows in disbelief and sees Mickey emerge from Mandy’s room a moment later holding a dog. It’s some sort of boxer looking dog, medium sized, and it has a collar. It’s licking Mickey happily. “Uh…” Ian doesn’t know what to say. Mickey smiles at him, his eyes hopeful. “This is…for you. His name’s Henry. You can call him something less stupid”. Ian wonders if he is dreaming right now, the sight in front of him is so odd. “You named him Henry?”

“No that’s his name” Mickey says, putting the dog down. “Wait...” Ian crouches down and grabs the dog’s collar, fingers the tag. HENRY and a phone number are printed onto it. Ian burst out laughing. “You stole someone’s dog for me?”

“Well fuck I didn’t know what else to get you. I was walking home and this fucker was tied up in someone’s yard just howling and I thought you might like him”. Ian is still laughing, “Mick I like him, but I don’t want a dog”. Mickey shrugs, “That’s okay. We can bring him back. He’s from some house over on Walton Street”.  
Ian grabs Mickey and plants a kiss on him, grinning. “Alright let’s take him back”. Mickey clips a leash on the dog and the two leave the Milkovich house. The dog tugs at his leash the entire time, pulling them towards the direction of his house. They approach a two-storey house with the lights on and a couple sitting on the porch, the man talking on his cellphone earnestly. They look up at the sight of the two boys coming towards them. “Oh my God Henry! You found our dog! Thankyou!” the woman comes rushing down the steps towards them.

Mickey doesn’t even blink, “Yeah, probably shouldn’t tie your dog outside by himself. Found him wandering around a few streets back” he jabs his thumb over his shoulder behind him. She is flustered, and takes the leash from Mickey, “I…won’t. Again”. Ian never ceases to be amazed by this man he is in love with. Every day with him is a fucking surprise.

The couple heads inside with their dog and Mickey turns to Ian, pushes a cigarette in his mouth and lights it. Murmurs from around it, “Sorry man. I didn’t know what to get you”.

“You didn’t need to get me anything, you goof” Ian tousles his black and neatly styled hair. “Eh fuck off” Mickey leans his head away from Ian’s offending hand. “Actually, I have this for you too. Fuck I bent it”. Mickey is pulling out an envelope from his pocket, and yes, it is definitely bent. Ian takes it from him, yanks a card out of the envelope. “Happy Birthday!” the army themed card has printed cheerfully on the outside. He flips it open, “You’re everything I’ve been looking for”. And in Mickey’s own writing, “happy birthday army” with a crude heart drawn beside it.

Ian’s own heart feels close to bursting. He leans his forehead against Mickey’s wordlessly. He can’t believe the love he feels for this guy. “I love you Mick. I… just love you” finally comes out his mouth. Mickey looks up at him with a great big smile, “I fucking love you too, happy birthday”.

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to write something happy and lighter than most of my work, so I wrote this quickly today :)


End file.
